If she resolve to share her husband's woes,
We all will follow where our lady goes.
Our wives and children, our young men and maids
Will roam with Rama through the forest glades:
Nay, thy son Bharat, and Satrughna too
Will to Ayodhya bid a long adieu,
Around their limbs the hermit's garb to fold,
And serve their elder brother as of old.
Do thou, rejoicing in the people's bane,
Enjoy, 'mid empty homes, thy lonely reign :
For 'tis no kingdom where our King is not;
He makes an empire in the wildest spot.'
Sumantra, bowing with his reverent head,
Upraised his suppliant hands, to Rama said:
'My ready car, O royal Prince, ascend,
And where thou wilt, my rapid course I bend.'
With cheerful heart, her toilet task complete,
The Rose of women rose' and took her seat.
And Rama next and Lakshman true and bold
Sprang on the sun-bright chariot deckt with gold.
Sumantra, mounted, urged each willing steed
Of noble lineage, like the wind for speed.
Then rose to heaven one universal shriek ;
And the whole city, old, young, strong, and weak
Rusht toward the car, as, from the scorching sun,
The panting herds to shaded water run.
Before the chariot and behind they hung,
And cried with weeping eyes, as there they clung:
'O check thy steeds; drive slower, we implore,
And let us see our Rama's face once more,
His mother's heart is surely barred with steel,
Or it had broken with the
Sita, well done! Videha's flower and pride,
Still, like his shadow, by thy husband's side,
Cheering his path with thy loved presence still,
As the sun never sets on Meru's hill.'
And thou, O Lakshman, shalt have honour too,
Serving thy brother with a love so true:
Yea, noblest honour for thy noble deeds,
1 A sacred mountain placed by the Hindus in the centre of the seven continents of which the earth is made up. It is said to be 84,000 yojanas high (a yojana is reckoned variously at four and nine miles). Its summit is a residence of the God Brahma.
For this the path to heaven and bliss that leads.'
Thus in their sorrow cried the weeping throng: 'Drive on,' said Rama, 'we delay too long.'
From the men's eyes the tears in torrents flowed,
And laid the dust upon the royal road;
While, in the woe that rent their bosoms, all
The women rained their tears, like drops that fall
From the drencht lotus-leaves upon the lake,
Which darting fish, glittering under, shake.
The King, as Rama from his sight was borne,
Fell like a Sal tree by the roots uptorn;
And the loud wailing cry that rent the skies
Made Rama for a moment tarn his eyes
Where his sad mother and her train stood round
His hapless father fainting on the ground.
Then, as a young thing in the meshes caught
Looks to its mother with a quick glance fraught
With utter anguish, bound by duty's chain,
Gazing in most intolerable pain,
One long last look of love and grief he cast,
Then urged the steeds till out of sight he past,
Then Queen Kausalya to her husband spake
With tears and sighs as though her heart would break : 'O thou whose glories through the wide worlds reach, Gentle, compassionate, and kind of speech,
Think, how will Sita nursed with tender care,
And thy two sons, their grievous hardships bear!
How will our darling, framed of finest mould,
Endure the rain and wind, the heat and cold!
How in the woods her tender life sustain,
With no sweet viands, only fruit and grain!
How bear the ravening lion's voice of fear,
She, to whom music and the song were dear!
Where sleeps my Rama now? Ah! cold his bed,
His arm the pillow of the Prince's head.
When shall I see him with his glorious hair,
Eyed like the lotus, like the lotus, fair?
Full well I know when years are past, and he
Returns from exile to his home and me,
His brother's leavings he will scorn, nor deign,
The rightful King, in Bharat's stead to reign:
The tasted morsel he will cast away:
The tiger feeds not on another's prey.
First on her lord, O King, the wife depends,
Next on her son, and then on kin and friends.
Thy love, my lord, 'twas never mine to win:
My son is banisht, far my kith and kin
I had but these, and thou hast left me none,
Bereaved, forlorn, despised and all undone !'
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